MANSEHRA: Inmates attacked jail staffers and set ablaze barracks to protest the management’s failure to provide treatment to a prisoner, who died of heart attack in the district prison here on Sunday night.
“The angry inmates put barracks on fire after one of their colleagues suffered a heart attack and died instantly,” deputy commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan told reporters on Monday.
Abid Anwar, who was convicted under section 302 of PPC, suffered the cardiac arrest, and other inmates sought medical help for him from the jail administration, but he was not allowed to be taken out of the jail, which forced them to set the barracks on fire.
When the situation went out of the jail management’s control they contacted the deputy commissioner, who dispatched a fire brigade and Rescue 1122 ambulance to the prison.
“Additional deputy commissioner Maqbool Hussain was rushed to jail, who held talks with the inmates and convinced them not to take law into their hands,” Dr Qasim said.
A local magistrate also rushed to the spot following the incident and allowed the jail management to shift the body to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital for autopsy. The doctors handed the body over to the family after medico-legal formalities.
Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2021
